1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a home network gateway apparatus and home network device.
A home network device refers to an electrical device connected to a home network such as TV, video camera and lamp.
A home network gateway apparatus refers to an interface apparatus placed between the home network and a wide-area network such as the Internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of a home network device remotely controlled via a public telephone channel is described in the Japanese Patent Application No. HEI 10-191463.
However, conventional technologies are unable to remotely control home network devices using a wide-area computer network such as the Internet.
Moreover, when a home network device is newly installed or removed, the user must update information of devices connected to the home network. It is therefore troublesome to control home those network devices.
It is an objective of the present invention to remotely control home network devices using a wide-area computer network such as the Internet. It is another objective of the present invention to make it easy to control information of the home network devices.
In the present invention, a home network gateway apparatus automatically acquires information of the devices connected to the home network and stores the information in connection with those devices.
Then, when accessed by a device incorporating a WWW browser on another network, the home network gateway apparatus sends necessary information to the device and displays a list of home network devices on the display of the device.
If the user clicks on an icon in the list displayed, the gateway apparatus sends control information corresponding to the icon to the home network device and operates the home network device as instructed by the user.
When a home network device is connected to the network, the home gateway apparatus of the present invention automatically acquires and stores information of the device, for example, information to create a list of homepages or information to control the operation of the home network device. Therefore, the user needs not to set the device information.
Moreover, the home gateway apparatus of the present invention functions as a home server. Therefore, an external device only needs to access the gateway apparatus. Other home devices need not to mount a server function and is therefore advantageous in the aspect of cost.
According to an preferred mode of the home network gateway apparatus of the present invention, when a device is connected to the home network, the home network gateway apparatus acquires and stores identification information, screen creation information and device operation information output from the device. Then, the home network gateway apparatus posts information of all devices connected to the home network in a list menu form on a built-in WWW server.
This allows the user to exercise concentrated control over the home network devices through the homepage list and remotely control the home network devices via the homepage.
In another mode of the home network gateway apparatus, if the connection of a home network device to the home network is canceled, the information of the device is deleted from the list menu.
This makes it possible not only to automatically detect connection/cancellation of connection of a home device to the network but also to automatically add/delete control information to/from the list through the homepage of the device.
In another mode of the home network gateway apparatus of the present invention, when instructed by an apparatus incorporating a WWW browser on the home network or a network other than the home network to remotely control the home network device via the list menu, the home network gateway apparatus sends control information to the home network device based on the device operation information and makes the device execute the operation as instructed.
This makes it possible to remotely control the home network device via the homepage.
In another mode of the home network gateway apparatus of the present invention, if a device is connected to the home network, the home network gateway apparatus acquires identification information and download server address information output from the home network apparatus. The home network gateway apparatus then accesses the download server based on the address information and downloads and stores the screen creation information and device operation information on the home network device. The home network gateway apparatus then posts information of all devices connected to the home network in a list menu form on a built-in WWW server.
In another mode of the home network gateway apparatus, if connection of a home network device to the home network is canceled, the home network gateway apparatus automatically deletes the information of the device from the list menu.
In another mode of the home network gateway apparatus, when instructed by an apparatus incorporating. a WWW browser on the home network or a network other than the home network to remotely control the home network device via the list menu, the home network gateway apparatus sends control information to the home network device based on the device operation information and makes the device execute the operation as instructed.
This makes it possible to remotely control the home device via the homepage.
In another mode of the home network device of the present invention, a function is provided to output information stored beforehand of the own device to the home network gateway apparatus at the time of connection to the network.
The present invention makes it easy to control home network devices. The present invention also allows a remote control of home network devices using a network such as the Internet.